Electro Velvet swing into action

Contributors

Gordon Roxburgh

Posted 17 May, 2015, 10:39

Eight duos are competing in this year's contest, and so far we have seen and heard seven of them rehearse at the Wiener Stadthalle. Electro Velvet, representing the United Kingdom, are the final duo to take to the stage for their first rehearsal.

Period piece

There are two staircases on the centre of the stage, for each of the singers to make their entrance. Bianca on the left hand side, and she is dressed in a cerise pink 1920's style dress. Alex, who comes down the right hand staircase is in an aubergine coloured suit.

At floor level on either side there are the backing vocalists, two on each side. Initially the female vocalists are on the left hand side, and the two men on the right.

There are two female backing vocalists in purple dresses, while the male backing vocalists have white shirts with broad vertical black stripes, and purple braces, and black trousers.

Electro effects

The outfits will light up in neon during the performance; in the case of the backing girls it is around the collar and hoops of their dresses, and with the men it is their belts and braces, and down the seams of their trousers.

As well as doing backing vocals and dancing, the two men will do some acrobatic back flips off the staircases, and thankfully there are some mattresses strategically placed on the floor for them.

There is a lot of period dancing from the couples, which results in the backing vocalists switching their positions, so that there is a male/female now on each side of the staircase

The background LED screens evoke the period of the song, and light up and pulse with he beat of the song. During the parts of the song where the costumes light up, the background LED is darker in tone. At one point there are fan shapes.

Appropriately enough towards the end of the song Still In Love With You, the LED screen displays heart shaped pulsing lights.

There are a couple of pyro effects during the song, including at the very end.

Have a look at our photo gallery.

Bianca Nicholas and Alex Larke are the two singers in Electro Velvet. We caught up with them when they arrived at the Wiener Stadthalle.

They arrived very early for their rehearsal, even ahead of the German delegation, who precede them in the rehearsal running order - but this meant they had plenty of time to relax and get familiar with the delegation area.

Even though they arrived early, they had been out on Saturday evening to see some of the sites in Vienna, including Rathaus Platz, the location for tonight's official opening ceremony.

The pair were looking forward to finally seeing the stage in the Wiener Stadthalle for themselves and to get the chance to rehearse. They aren't thinking too much about the competition, but more about their own performance. In fact they have enjoyed meeting some of the other artists at the various events that they have attended over the last events, as well as enjoying meeting all the fans.